Train derailment fire will have to burn itself out before residents can go home

Emergency crews have had to back off and let a major fire on a CN tanker train derailment 80 km west of Edmonton burn itself out.

Residents of nearby Gainford will have to wait until at least Sunday to return home from an emergency evacuation of their town. They could have to wait as long as 72 hours for the blaze to burn out.

Jim Phelan, Parkland County fire chief, says no further explosions are expected from the 13 cars carrying oil and liquefied petroleum gas on a freight train operated by Canadian National Railway, but the evacuation order for about 100 people must stay in place.

“Until it is safe to approach the immediate area, the hot zone as we call it, we’ll be keeping all emergency personnel and civilians away,” Phelan said.

He said two of the cars remained on fire late Saturday.

Two investigators from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada are on the scene but haven’t been able to get close to the train to determine what happened.

They will be looking at the train’s maintenance and history, checking the tracks and talking to the CN crew.

Thirteen of the 130 cars on the train came off the tracks around 1 a.m. Saturday -- nine of which were carrying liquefied petroleum gas and four were carrying crude oil.

Residents of Parkland County reported seeing a fireball shoot across the sky after one of the cars carrying liquefied petroleum gas exploded.

The derailment prompted the evacuation of the nearby hamlet of Gainford.

Gainford resident Jeanette Hall said she awoke to what sounded like “an airplane landing on Highway 16.”

“I heard the cars tipping over and there was a huge crash that shook the house -- then the fireball,” Hall told CTV News Channel.

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Photos

A helicopter camera captures the aftermath of an explosion after a train derailed in Gainford, Alta. on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013.

RCMP Air 1 helicopter captures an explosion after a train derailed in Gainford, Alta. on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013. (Parkland County / Facebook)

Officials update the public on the train derailment that happened in Gainford, Alta. on Saturday, Oct. 19, 2013.

Firefighters block the highway as emergency crews battle a fire at the scene where 13 cars - four carrying petroleum crude oil and nine carrying liquefied petroleum gas - came off the tracks in an early-morning derailment near Gainford, Alta., on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2013. (Jason Franson / THE CANADIAN PRESS)